Polymer recycling using microbes

Polymer recycling using microbes
Glaser, John
2017-07-31 00:00:00
Clean Techn Environ Policy (2017) 19:1817–1823 DOI 10.1007/s10098-017-1392-3 NEW S John A. Glaser Published online: 31 July 2017 Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany (outside the USA) 2017 Plastics are globally consumed at a pace of some 311 microorganism isolated from the area adjacent to a plastic million tons per year with 90% having a petroleum origin. bottle-recycling facility can degrade the plastic into small Remarkable quantities of packaging plastics are recycled molecular constituents. Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) though low. Packaging is the dominating application for is a robust organic polymer having a multitude of appli- these plastics. As an example, beverage bottles constitutes cation ranging from textiles to packaging materials and is less than 15% of recycle collection. Generally, plastics the major polymer employed in beverage bottle manufac- degrade in the environment very slowly resulting in major ture. The environmental accumulation of PET is a testa- environmental concerns for the proper and sustainable ment of its versatility and the lack of chemical/physical recycling and disposition of such massive amounts of these mechanisms capable of attacking its structural integrity. rather durable organic polymers. There is an increasing This new research shows that a newly isolated microbial collection of technologies and new material sources
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